Fusing with fashion
The fashion may have been a treat at the Colombo Fashion Week’s Resort Wear show 2014, but visitors and participants at the annual event had other feasts lined up for them as well. The four-day show which concluded last night in Negombo, also witnessed a unique confluence of fashion and food. As part of the proceedings, feted French chef Daniel Hebet and rising Malay star Kenneth Loke crafted multi-course meals in their respective oeuvres, extending the show’s spirit of innovation to the culinary arena.
Daniel Hebet
This melange of haute cuisine and high fashion, held at the Jetwing Beach and Blue hotels, was the second such event to be conducted as part of the Colombo Fashion Week Resort Wear show, now in its third edition. Perhaps fittingly for a show that aspires to draw the world’s attention to Sri Lanka, the food at CFW 2014 aimed to give Sri Lankans a taste of global flavours. Hebet infused locally sourced modha and red mullet fish with characteristic French flair in creations such as a grilled fillet of red mullet with white beans and basil pistou, and Loke gave Sri Lankan crab the Asian treatment with a mango and coriander salsa.
Having been trained in a solid, classical French style of cooking in his 30-year career, which started with culinary school in the western French city of La Rochelle at the age of 14, over the years, Hebet has been associated with a Michelin-starred restaurant (Mirande in the city of Avignon in Provence, France) and been a consultant chef to Laduree, the legendary French teahouse and patisserie, for nearly 15 years. Currently, he is the chef and proprietor of Le Jardin du Quai, a restaurant located in a renovated townhouse in his native Provence, which exemplifies his philosophy of fresh, seasonal and local cooking.
Kenneth Loke
Hebet’s commitment to staying true to the ethos of French cooking won him a coveted place in the Maitres Cuisinaires de France, a highly prestigious, 60-year-old association of master chefs who are entrusted with the responsibility of preserving France’s culinary legacy.
However, his French flavours are also imbued with inspirations from his travels. “I love the spirit of Peruvian cuisine,” he says, echoing a growing pool of chefs worldwide who are drawing from the fresh, clean flavours of the South American cuisine.
Chef Kenneth Loke’s culinary style also melds the seemingly disparate flavours of two geographically distant countries: his native Malaysia and Sweden. The 33-year-old chef has been making waves for his performance in the Bocuse D’Or, a worldwide professional cooking competition, often referred to as the culinary equivalent of the Olympics. Earlier this year, after a keenly fought, five-hour-long competition, Loke beat participants from 12 Asian nations to secure a bronze prize in the continental selections, and will compete at the finals, to be held in Lyon, France in 2015.
Meanwhile he continues to perfect his signature blend of Scandinavian and Asian flavours, one that he developed during a professional stint in Sweden. “Swedish food and Asian food have more in common than you imagine,” he says. “For instance, [Asians] have pickles; the Swedish have pickled herring. We have smoked duck eggs, they include a lot of smoked meats. They may taste different in flavour, but they are similar in technique.”
At CFW Resort Wear 2014, Loke served an appetiser of grilled prawns paired with beurre noisette made out of milk powder. The rich, nutty quality of the brown butter tempered with fried curry leaves, paired surprisingly well with the prawns – a flavour pairing, while reminiscent of Sri Lankan hot butter seafood, is far from conventional. Similarly, the Johor Laksa that he prepared during the event (from Loke’s native town of Johor Bahru, replaces the de rigueur vermicelli noodles with spaghetti, a global touch that seems completely in keeping with our times.
Both Hebet and Loke agree that the pervasive reach of the Internet has completely changed the way the world eats. It has created awareness about cuisines from distant countries that one might not have had access to even a few years ago.Today’s diners are probably more open to new flavours than ever before. All the better for chefs like Hebet and Loke who are seeking to spread the gospel of good food sans borders.